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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29917260">Carly</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gumnut/pseuds/Gumnut'>Gumnut</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Thunderbirds</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, POV Outsider, Tracy Industries</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 20:35:31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,476</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29917260</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gumnut/pseuds/Gumnut</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Tracy Industries gets attacked. But the perpetrators find more to deal with than they expected.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>24</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Carly</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Can I be cheeky and ask for a wheel spin for Scott? ^^" Thunderbird-one-ai </p>
<p>I did the spinning thing and got ‘concussion’ and ‘office cubicle’</p>
<p>Here be the result.</p>
<p>-o-o-o-</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Carly had been through a lot in her short time at Tracy Industries, but this took the cake.</p>
<p>“I assure you, Tracy, if you give yourself up, everything will go much, much better for your employees.” The man’s voice was gravelly as he projected across the office space. She couldn’t see him from where she was crouched in a random cubicle, but she didn’t need to.</p>
<p>The man was a villain straight out of a movie – dark-haired, more muscle than brains, he even sported a moustache out of the eighteenth century. Carly had seen one like that on one of her great times whatever grandfathers.</p>
<p>Mom was really into genealogy.</p>
<p>But none of that was important.</p>
<p>What was important was her boss. Scott Tracy, a man she admired beyond belief, was curled up in the cubicle with her, his head in her lap.</p>
<p>Of course, this was a position she may have daydreamed about at some point, but those dreams usually involved summer days and lazing in a field under a tree with a picnic rug and a bottle of bubbly.</p>
<p>It should also be noted that they were daydreams that were likely shared by ninety percent of the female staff in the building and in no way ever considered an actual possibility.</p>
<p>And never involved a gun man or his six equally armed cronies.</p>
<p>Mr Tracy had simply been walking towards his office. He made a point of making his way through the cubicle forest and saying good morning to any he encountered. Those who had been here long enough claimed that it was a tradition sprouted by Mr Tracy Senior before his tragic death.</p>
<p>Every one knew how good the Tracys were.</p>
<p>She had never worked in an environment where so many people so admired their employer. Even if he wasn’t in the building very often, he still put in effort. There were teleconferences, his hologram was a familiar sight as were the interruptions followed by some dramatic news story where X amount of people were saved by the same man and his brothers.</p>
<p>They were led by a hero.</p>
<p>And their work reflected that aim. Tracy Industries was a massive engine churning out so much good into the world. It still worked as a business. It had to, to stay solvent and stable in a world much less kind than the Tracys themselves. But it was the small things. The disability aids, the charity work, the environmental projects, the doing simply because there was a need. The profit margin kept so much going that was so needed in the world.</p>
<p>And in the middle of her office stood a man who wanted to take that all away.</p>
<p>“C..arly.” Fogged blue eyes searched for her as his head bled on the print of her dress.</p>
<p>She touched a finger to his lips without thinking. A motion she would have done for her boyfriend and never for her boss, but the massive presence of Scott Tracy had been reduced to an injured man who had almost died as the bullet clipped his temple.</p>
<p>There had been so much screaming as her workmates dove for cover. Whether the gunman wanted Mr Tracy dead or for some other nefarious purpose, she didn’t know. She would say she didn’t care or that it was irrelevant, but it did matter as she had seen enough movies to know that that would affect what the asshole was willing to do to get to her boss.</p>
<p>His hand reached up and took her finger away. “Help me up.” And he was straining to climb to his feet.</p>
<p>“No.” It took very little to hold him down which only proved that he should stay down.</p>
<p>“He’s going to hurt pe’ple.”</p>
<p>Carly pressed her lips together as she caught the eye of Barb in the cubicle across from hers. “You let us worry about that.”</p>
<p>His eyes widened and he shook his head, only to have to close his eyes at the movement.</p>
<p>She brushed a hair off his forehead.</p>
<p>“Scott Tracy! Is this one your secretary?” A woman’s cry echoed across the room. “She is very beautiful. You picked a nice one. A dead one if you don’t show yourself by the count of five.”</p>
<p>Scott tried to get up again, this time opening his mouth to yell something.</p>
<p>She clamped her hand down and muffled whatever he was trying to say just as the gunman squawked in pain. “You bitch! You bit me!” There was the sound of a scuffle and the gun went off.</p>
<p>Silence followed.</p>
<p>Mr Tracy’s eyes widened in horror and glistened in the overhead lighting. Again, he tried to rise, but couldn’t.</p>
<p>Carly shook her head and mouthed a silent ‘I’m sorry’. She had to blink away her own tears.</p>
<p>“You’re not going to find him.”</p>
<p>Carly blinked. That was Marcus, the guy who fixed her computer. Ever the nerd, he wore a Trek tie to work almost every day and the days he didn’t, it was a Doctor Who tie.</p>
<p>She bit the inside of her cheek.</p>
<p>The click of the gun. “And who is going to stop me?”</p>
<p>Barb scuttled out of her cubicle, her headset on her head whispering ever so quietly. Her eyes pinned Carly and clearly told her to keep their boss safe.</p>
<p>Carly swallowed hard.</p>
<p>The shift of an office chair. “I will stop you.” The voice shook but held strong, this time a woman she didn’t recognise.</p>
<p>“Me, too.” A wavery male voice.</p>
<p>“And me.”</p>
<p>“And me.”</p>
<p>Then there were many voices filling the audio space of the room.</p>
<p>“Then we will kill you all.” The gunman yelled over the ruckus, only to scream out in pain. Anger and screams overtook and Carly clutched her boss to her, tears running down her cheeks.</p>
<p>A roar suddenly drowned out everything. A roar that every employee knew well.</p>
<p>The roar of a Thunderbird.</p>
<p>The sound of breaking glass.</p>
<p>More yelling.</p>
<p>But no more gunfire.</p>
<p>Mr Tracy’s blue eyes were wet and struggling to focus on her.</p>
<p>Until they closed and didn’t open again.</p>
<p>Shit.</p>
<p>Her fingers scrambled for a pulse as her own staggered until she found it.</p>
<p>“Please, Mr Tracy.” She brushed that same stray hair off his forehead and it stubbornly flicked back.</p>
<p>Barb suddenly appeared, a woman in IR blue-grey beside her. Security.</p>
<p>“John, I’ve got him. We need Virgil in here.”</p>
<p>“FAB.”</p>
<p>Carly barely registered the exchange, only that there were suddenly hands attempting to take her boss away.</p>
<p>Her unconscious and possibly dying boss, Mr Tracy.</p>
<p>She struggled a moment, but the woman’s grip was like iron and Barb grabbed Carly, soothing words spilling all over her.</p>
<p>A man in green and blue appeared with a stretcher. Curt words, an examination and Mr Tracy was whisked away.</p>
<p>Carly found her hands empty.</p>
<p>“Are you okay?” A young man, blonde, blue eyes, IR uniform slashed in red. His hand gently urged her to stand. When she did, she rose into a world that was no longer a cubicle forest and more like a war zone.</p>
<p>Office furniture lay scattered everywhere. Several cubicle walls had been pushed over. Everyone was milling about, some angry, some crying. IR security was everywhere, intermixed with Tracy Industries security.</p>
<p>“Ma’am, please sit down.” A chair was found and she was deposited in it. Alan Tracy, because that is who he was - Carly knew that, as much as she knew she was likely in shock, she was shaking so much. “Are you hurt?”</p>
<p>She shook her head. “Mr Tracy was shot.”</p>
<p>“We know. Virgil’s on it.” As if on command, Thunderbird Two, which had been hovering outside the windows, spun midair and tore off into the distance.</p>
<p>The absence of its engine roar left a gap that had many of the people in the room muttering.</p>
<p>“What happened to the bad guys?” She blinked.</p>
<p>“They didn’t stand a chance.” The youngest Tracy was checking her pulse and frowning at her.</p>
<p>“Who got shot?”</p>
<p>Barb answered. “Julie from social networking was shot in the shoulder.  Ms Kyrano says she should be okay. Took a chunk out of the bastard’s arm with her teeth though.” Barb was actually smiling.</p>
<p>Alan was staring at Barb, frowning.</p>
<p>The office coordinator caught his stare and threw it back at him. “We take care of our own, Mr Tracy. No asshole is going to mess with our family on my shift.” She squeezed Carly’s arm before turning back to the chaos and began issuing orders.</p>
<p>Alan turned back to Carly.</p>
<p>“Wow, she’s a little scary.”</p>
<p>Carly straightened, finally finding her spine. “We’re all the same, Mr Tracy. You don’t mess with Tracy Industries.”</p>
<p>Her lip trembled as his blue eyes widened.</p>
<p>She swallowed suddenly aware of exactly what she had been willing to offer. “We protect our own.”</p>
<p>-o-o-o-</p>
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